


On The Off Chance You Don't Live Forever

by Happy9450



Category: The Newsroom (US TV)
Genre: AU, F/M, Pre-Series
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-27
Updated: 2015-02-27
Packaged: 2018-03-15 11:34:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,545
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3445634
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Happy9450/pseuds/Happy9450
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>This is a variation on It Was The Best of Times suggested in a comment from Lilacmermaid.  I hope you like it.</p>
    </blockquote>





	On The Off Chance You Don't Live Forever

**Author's Note:**

  * For [lilacmermaid](https://archiveofourown.org/users/lilacmermaid/gifts).



> This is a variation on It Was The Best of Times suggested in a comment from Lilacmermaid. I hope you like it.

June 8, 2007 4:00 PM George Washington University Hospital 

He filled the open doorway of her hospital room. She was reading a book, half-glasses perched on the end of her nose, and didn't see him. He felt the little knot of fear in his belly loosen a bit at the normalcy of her pose. But she was very pale and the arm into which the IV line had been placed was frighteningly thin. 

 

Three Days Before

Charlie Skinner sat down at his desk. He'd had enough. Both Nancy and Leona had told him to stay out of it. That should have been sufficient to dissuade him from sticking his nose into Will’s business, and it had been until breakfast that morning. This time, Charlie had pushed back at the assertion he had previously taken at face value that MacKenzie McHale had broken off her relationship with Will McAvoy in order to return to her ex-boyfriend. Maybe it was that although Charlie’d only met Brian Brenner a couple of times, he couldn't imagine anyone choosing him over Will. He didn't know why, but he'd just not let Will up this time. He’d kept challenging Will until tears had sprung into the younger man’s eyes and many things had come spewing out, including the fact that Will had been ignoring daily emails, voicemails and text messages from MacKenzie since the day she had told him about Brenner.

So, against all advice, Charlie Skinner picked up the handset on his phone and dialed Darius Walker at CNN’s Washington D.C. bureau. After a brief period of conversation getting reacquainted and Darius confirming the industry rumors that he would be coming north to take over CNN’s New York office, Charlie cleared his throat and brought up the subject of Will and MacKenzie. Darius seemed wary and insisted that neither Will nor Mac had confided in him the reason for the ending of their relationship. It was only when Charlie characterized the break-up as having been initiated by MacKenzie’s desire to return to Brenner, that Darius came alive. 

"Is that what that fucker McAvoy's saying? Excuse me, but that’s just bullshit! Brenner did come sniffing around when word got out that McAvoy was back in New York and about to take over News Night. Mac told him off in front of half our bull pen . . . said she meant it a year and a half ago when she said she never wanted to see him again. Christ! Does McAvoy believe that or is he just looking for an excuse for what he's done?”

The last question seemed rhetorical, so Charlie didn't attempt an answer. Instead he asked, “I was under the impression that MacKenzie wanted the breakup, no?” 

“Not unless she's suicidal. Which she sure as shit didn't used to be. I couldn't . . . can't . . . get either of them to talk about what went wrong. I haven't spoken to McAvoy since he resigned . . she defends him . . . says there was a misunderstanding that was her fault. But since he's gone to New York, it's been killing her. I mean that. She doesn't eat, looks like she doesn't sleep. She can't concentrate, can't work. Thank God, her doctor’s finally put her in the hospital for a few days.”

“What? What kind of hospital?”

Darius was silent for a minute. “Just a regular hospital. GW.”

And so, Charlie Skinner cancelled his appointments for the day and took the train to Washington D.C. Somewhere outside of Baltimore, Skinner started to ask himself just what the fuck he was doing, and more painfully, why he was doing it. It was more than wanting to help a young man he'd come to like enormously. It was that he recognized the gut wrenching pain that had recently taken up permanent residence in Will’s eyes. He recognized the stark contrast to the perpetual twinkle that Charlie had seen when they'd had dinner the year before and Will had been unable to stop talking about MacKenzie. He knew as surely as he knew the date that this was no passing phenomenon. Will would miss MacKenzie McHale for the rest of his life. And, Charlie Skinner was damned if he'd let that happen to Will . . . to anyone he cared about.

She was sleeping when Charlie slowly pushed open MacKenzie McHale’s hospital room door. He stood and studied her. Pale skin with a smattering of freckles across her nose and high English cheekbones, chestnut brown hair spread over her pillow, she slept on her side, one arm resting protectively over her abdomen, the only indication that she was under a doctor’s care being the IV line running from her left arm to the bag suspended at the head of the bed. She was beautiful, Charlie thought, but so frail, so thin, so . . . Holy Shit! Charlie looked more closely, squinting to ensure that his eyes weren't playing tricks on him. Then, he took a few steps farther into the room to make sure that what he saw wasn't the overhead light creating a shadow or the blanket twisted across her body. No, he thought, finally standing beside her. He’d had sufficient experience as a father to be sure. MacKenzie McHale was pregnant . . . very pregnant. 

Christ! No wonder she’d come apart when Will left for New York. Will! Will was going to be a father! As fucked up as things were, Charlie couldn't help grinning.

He was jolted from his thoughts by the sound of the door opening. A pleasant looking middle-aged nurse came in and jumped slightly at the sight of him. From her expression, Charlie surmised that MacKenzie hadn’t had many visitors. She smiled at him and proceeded to take Mac’s blood pressure. When Mac didn't wake up, Charlie asked the nurse if she was sedated.

“Just a little medication to help her sleep,” said the nurse, whose badge stated that her name was Teresa, “but I doubt if she’ll wake while you’re here.”

“Is that safe for the baby?” Charlie blurted out.

“Yes, of course,” she replied, providing final confirmation of Charlie’s observations. “My goodness,” Teresa said defensively, “Dr. Scanlon’s one of the best OB-GYN’s in D.C. She’s in very good hands.”

“I know you can't say much, but can you tell me how her condition is rated?”

“You’re not her father then?” 

“No. Just a . . . friend.”

“She's in stable condition,” Teresa said. Then, noticing Charlie’s worried expression, she took pity on him and went as far as she felt she could to reassure him that MacKenzie would be fine. “She's just a little run down, honey. But she's eating now and getting stronger. Sometimes women get morning sickness so bad they don't eat at all and have trouble sleeping. A few days in the hospital and they are fine.”

 

June 8, 2007 9:00 AM Atlantis World Media Executive Dining Room

“Do I look like I give a shit?” Will McAvoy sat back and folded his hands defensively across his chest like a sulky teenager.

“Frankly, to me, you look like MacKenzie McHale is the only thing on this planet that you do give a shit about.”

The two men glared at each other over their half-eaten breakfasts, long gone cold. 

"Will, hear me out. A few days ago, I spoke to Darius Walker. He says that MacKenzie isn't doing well.” Charlie had decided not to mention his trip to Washington.

“That's bullshit! She's right where she wants to be with the guy she wants to be with.”

"Then, tell me why she's sending you messages.”

“She's stopped.”

“When?”

“I haven’t gotten anything for a four or five days.” That didn't surprise Charlie.

“Okay, forget the messages. Why do you think that she's back with Brenner?”

“Because she told me that she’s been sleeping with him!” Will’s voice rose several decibels, and he looked around sheepishly when he saw that more than a few of the other diners were staring at him.

Charlie sighed. "That's not what Walker says,” he began quietly. “He says that when Brenner came around after you left, she sent him packing, told him that she'd meant it when she’d said a year and a half ago . . . .”

Suddenly, Will was getting to his feet, pushing violently back from the table. “I don't need to listen to this . . . .”

“Yes, you do!” Charlie bellowed, also rising to his feet. “So, sit the fuck down in that chair!” Charlie Skinner clamped his jaw shut to get control of himself. As the rest of the room watched in silence, the President of ACN and News Night’s new anchor faced off across the table, eye ball to eye ball. As much as he wanted to do so, Will could not bring himself to be so disrespectful to Charlie as to walk out on him in front of a room half-full of AWM executives. He sat.

“Christ, Will,” Charlie said in as quiet and calm voice as he could manage. “You owe it to yourself to figure this out. Maybe you’ve got things wrong . . . .”

“Well, time will tell,” Will interrupted obdurately, not even sure what he meant by it.

“On the off chance you aren't going to live forever, or maybe I should say on the chance Mac’s not going to live forever, I suggest you do it now.” Charlie looked at Will and a sadness came into the older man’s eyes. “Son, she's . . . Walker says that since you left town, she’s not been eating or sleeping. She's in the hospital . . . .”

Once again, Will rose from the table, only this time his motion was slow and tentative. “Wha . . . What? Why?” he stuttered. Charlie didn't answer. He simply handed Will the piece of paper that he had just taken from his pocket. “What’s . . . this?”

Charlie watched him unfold it. “The Metroliner schedule. Go, son. Go to her. She's in George Washington University Hospital. You’ll never forgive yourself if you don't.”

Will nodded. 

 

June 8, 2007 4:00 PM George Washington University Hospital

Will had a lot of time to think on the train, think and read and listen to the emails, texts and voice messages Mac had left for him since the morning in early March when she'd confessed that she had seen and slept with Brian Brenner behind his back. In almost every email, she had explained that it had happened more than a year before. Before she realized that she was in love with him. Then, she would say that she was sorry, say that she loved him and beg him to see her. The voice messages followed a heartbreaking pattern, starting out calmly and devolving into sobbing requests that he please, please contact her, just listen to her.

On the train, Will had worked on suppressing the terror that had risen in his chest as an unbidden response to Charlie’s disclosure that MacKenzie was in the hospital. Why should he feel this panic, he asked himself, why should he fear that something could happen to her when she was already out of his life. He knew the answer, but would not allow it to form in his thoughts. Instead, he told himself that his concern was for a . . . well, not a friend, but former co-worker. But the fear would not be denied. Charlie’s words about not living forever played repeatedly in his head. He couldn't stand the thought that MacKenzie was ill enough to be in a hospital.

But he also couldn't shake his commitment to not forgiving her for going back to Brenner, even if it hadn’t happened when he had thought. He recalled his father’s words, “once a cheat, always a cheat,” words that had made him insanely angry, but had also reminded him that once a drunk, always a drunk, reminded him of what forgiveness gets you . . . disappointment, disillusionment and pain.

Will felt a little better after he worked out how he would behave at the hospital. He wasn't ready to forgive her or trust her, but he wasn't going to be hostile. He'd tell her that they weren't enemies, that he didn't want her to be upset about their break up, that he was over being angry, over it, over her, that he had heard that she been hospitalized and was concerned about her well being. By the time the Metroliner pulled into Union Station, Will had it all down pat.

None of his planning survived seeing her again, or more precisely, survived his reaction to her seeing him again. She looked up slowly from her reading. The glasses came off, and he could see her eyes were wide with surprise and luminescent with unshed tears. Her lips parted a split second before she spoke, and he wanted nothing in life so much as to feel them against his once more. 

“Billy? Billy? You’re . . . you’re here?” She whispered each word in disbelief and he could see the hand that she used to push a lock of hair away from her face was trembling. And, then she crumbled. Tears rolled down her cheeks and her shoulders shook. “Billy. Oh, God, Billy. I thought that I'd . . . never . . . that you’d . . . never . . . come back to me . . . .”

Will couldn't stop himself. She looked so frail. He was suddenly terrified anew that he'd come this far and was going to learn that she was seriously ill, that she was going to be taken from him. He moved swiftly to the bed and wrapped her in his arms. Her head fell onto his chest for a moment and then her arms went around his neck and her hands gripped his shoulders, pulling him against her. Her head came up, his lips found hers and time stopped. 

“I love you, Kenz,” Will heard himself saying between the kisses that he was placing on her face and neck, “nothing could . . . can . . . make me stop loving you.” Forgiveness didn't seem to matter any more. Somehow he knew that she would never hurt him again.

“I love you, Billy . . . I’m sorry . . . so sorry . . . I never meant to hurt you . . . It . . . Brian . . . was long ago.”

“I know,” he said, and suddenly he did. It had been long ago, and what they felt for each other was now.

“I love you, Will . . . I can't . . . live . . . without you.

He shifted his body against her and felt something wrong . . . her stomach seemed larger, or . . . . Will froze as the word, cancer, and a feeling of blind panic took possession of his mind. No! No! He couldn't lose her! They would fight. They would beat this. He pulled back.

“Kenz,” Will whispered, swallowing to gain control over his emotions. “Kenz, tell me, why . . . why are you in here. What’s wrong?”

“I'm . . . I . . . “ she started to respond when her eyes grew large and the beginnings of a small smile started to play at the corners of her mouth. She grabbed his right hand and placed it on her stomach, which was even more swollen than he'd imagined. Then, to his shock and amazement, he felt her body make a sharp, jabbing movement under his hand. She pressed his palm down again and the movement repeated itself.

“Wha . . . what? Kenz, what is that I'm feeling?” It seemed like Will’s brain had stalled out.

MacKenzie looked deep into his eyes, as fresh tears streaked down her face. “Your son, Billy. You’re feeling your son.”


End file.
